Sunday, August 2, 2009

Spoiler alert: they were great! I'll have a more detailed report tomorrow, but the Drybags worked great, and the hunk of beef I sealed two weeks ago produced some very delicious steaks.

By the way, as I cut into the 3rd slice, I got a little shock...my strip loin was turning into a rib eye! A commenter had said it looked like a rib roast, but since it came from a butcher, and was priced and labeled as "strip loin," and the end piece was definitely a NY strip, well, I assumed I was aging a strip loin. I'm going to show the butcher the photos and ask why my roast was part NY and part rib eye. Also, great eyes by the viewer who identified it in the first video (I believe I called him a fool, which I must now retract). Stay tuned!

10 comments:

OMG, I can't believe a chef just apologized to me! Actually, it was a compliment combined with a retraction, but that's close enough to an apology that I won't ask you to recalibrate your remarks. Lol.

My family owns a local foodservice company in Anchorage, Alaska (Teddy's Tasty Meats), so I should be able to spot the difference. The top of a ribeye is more rounded and there's usually a bit of a raised hump that runs across the length of the top of the meat where the tasty deckle/lifter meat is. A New York strip is more flat on top and doesn't have the extra hump. I also think the area on the larger side of the strip where the ribs are removed looks a little different on the two cuts of meat.

On the plus side, you got a bargain by getting the ribeye for the price of a new york. Maybe I'm cheap, but I prefer a top sirloin over either of them based strictly on the stronger beef flavor. I'm really curious how your aging bags work, since I have easy access to whole strips of beef. My father learned to be a butcher by working in restaurants back in New York City in the 60's and he said the restaurants would sometimes age beef until mold was growing on it and then trim it all off before cooking it.

O my gacckkks your showing off those steaks an I came home from vacations to my wife defrosting the fridge,have one whole chicken an two in parts to cook an you have steak up,I ate chicken an ribs all weekend.so sads,um I trade a chicken an thousand bucks to any pilot who will fly us to Chef Johns for a steak but um you have to ask if he wants company.I bring the beer k!

I never worry about aging beef but I do a lot of deer hunting and I can tell you from experience. After shooting a deer I hang them in a walk-in cooler for 2-3 weeks at around 39 degrees. The meat is much more tender and richer

I age entire rib loins anywhere from 30 to 60 days. There is no comparison in tenderness and taste. Don't let wet agers fool you with their product because it's not at all the same. Once you try a properly dry aged steak you will never think of steak the same way. It's equivalent to real parmasean and that stuff you get in the can. It's easy to do if you have a dedicated fridge for aging. Once you have at least 28 days you can trim off the dry crust and enjoy right away. They also tend to cook a bit quicker.

David

Ps. I love your site and recipes. You really emphasize the importance of the steps. I tell all my friends about foodwishes.com. Keep at it chef John